President Donald Trump met with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle Wednesday in an effort to cobble together school safety legislation after 17 high school students and staff were shot and killed in Parkland, Florida two weeks ago.
Throughout the televised meeting, President Trump said he would sign a bill with a number of provisions that would heavily restrict Americans’ Second Amendment rights and jabbed several Republican congressmen for being too heavily influenced by the National Rifle Association. Here’s six of the most insane moments from Wednesday’s meeting.
1.Trump Told Sens. Pat Toomey and Joe Manchin They’re Scared of the NRA
Trump asked Toomey and Manchin if their proposed bill would ban anyone under the age of 21 from buying an AR-15. When they said their bill did not include a provision to do this, Trump interjected: “You know why, you’re afraid of the NRA.”
2. Trump: ‘Take the Guns First. Go Through Due Process Second’
"Take the guns first. Go through due process second," President Trump says at a meeting with bipartisan lawmakers. "I like taking the guns early." https://t.co/lQkq3krCWs pic.twitter.com/0iPywBQ66b
— CNN (@CNN) February 28, 2018
“I like taking the guns early, “he added, explaining that it takes “so long” to go to court and for a judge to rule that someone should lose his constitutional right to bear arms. So the government should be empowered to take away one’s firearms at the drop of a hat then sort it out in court later, he said.
3. Trump Encourages Everyone To Throw Everything Into The Bill
During an exchange with @amyklobuchar, Trump demonstrates a child-like understanding of the legislative process pic.twitter.com/KiNmuxzBFM
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 28, 2018
. . . everything except concealed carry reciprocity.
Trump crushes @SteveScalise‘s dreams, tells him he doesn’t think he should include concealed carry provisions in a guns bill pic.twitter.com/lqZHDoN8q5
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 28, 2018
This exchange got a lot of praise from the usual suspects.
4. Trump Blames ‘The Video Games. The Movies. The Internet Stuff’
TRUMP on video games: “The video games, movies, the internet stuff is so violent. It’s incredible. I get to see things that you wouldn’t be — you would be amazed at. I have a very young son who I look at some of the things he’s watching and I say, how is that possible?” pic.twitter.com/nqedFqzbwt
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 28, 2018
“The video games, the movies, the Internet stuff is so violent,” he said. “I get to see things that you’d be amazed at. . . This is what kids are watching.”
He also suggested perhaps there should be a movie rating system that makes clear how much violence is in a movie.
“You rate movies for different things, maybe you have to rate them for terror,” he said.
5. Old Man Yells At Cloud
Sen. Chuck Grassley ratcheted up Trump’s rant against violence in movies a notch, or twelve.
LOL @ChuckGrassley ranting about violent video games is like a parody of Grandpa on @TheSimpsons pic.twitter.com/O7HTmtajYJ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 28, 2018
As Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress noted in the tweet above, Grassley’s delivery is reminiscent of that time Grandpa Simpson picked a fight with a cloud.
6. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Face
Feinstein leapt for joy all throughout the meeting. At one point, she appears to have jumped several inches up from her seat and affectionately jabbed President Trump with her right arm. Watch.
Feinstein's reaction when Trump says she should add assault weapons ban to Manchin-Toomey pic.twitter.com/7dlKxwa1KO
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) February 28, 2018
It would be funny if it weren’t a Republican president endorsed by the NRA making Democratic lawmakers who want to end the public’s right to self-defense so happy.
